Geni is a website that allows families to collaboratively build their family tree. Family members can then use the tree to learn more about each other, share knowledge about common ancestors and relatives, and stay in touch with each other.

Geni is a website that allows families to collaboratively build their family tree. Family members can then use the tree to learn more about each other, share knowledge about common ancestors and relatives, and stay in touch with each other.

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[[Geni, Inc.]] is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It is backed by venture capital firms [[Founders Fund]] and [[Charles River Ventures]].

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In November 2012, Geni was acquired by MyHeritage Ltd. and is now a MyHeritage company.

==About Geni==

==About Geni==

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Geni was founded in 2006 by former executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, Ebay and Tribe.

Geni was founded in 2006 by former executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, Ebay and Tribe.

===Geni stats or Geni statistics===

===Geni stats or Geni statistics===

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There are more than 5,000,000 profiles.

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* There are more than 50,000,000 profiles.

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THere are more than 100,000 registered users.

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* There are more than 3,500,000 registered users.

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* 50% of Geni users are outside the U.S.

===Geni junkies or Geni members===

===Geni junkies or Geni members===

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===Geni tech or Geni technology===

===Geni tech or Geni technology===

(Oh, the standard stuff like what technologies are being used, if Geni is housing their own servers in an ultra-modern, kick-butt facility.)

(Oh, the standard stuff like what technologies are being used, if Geni is housing their own servers in an ultra-modern, kick-butt facility.)

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==Building your Geni tree==

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===Getting Started===

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====Welcome to Geni!====

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If you are like most new users of Geni, you have probably been looking for a place to enter, store and share genealogical data on your immediate family (and beyond) with other relatives and friends. Geni is indeed a great tool for doing that. But there are several things that you will need to know before you get too far at building your family tree here. The most important of these is the fact that Geni’s focus is on ''[[Collaboration]] and sharing'' for the purpose of working toward the ultimate goal of creating a single, accurate family tree that connects all of our users (with no duplicates). In other words, the whole point is to build your family tree out just far enough to find the places where it overlaps with the trees of other users, and then to merge these points of overlap in order to eliminate the duplicates. The more entries you make beyond that will just create extra work for you and other users, as will be explained below.

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====What Geni is not====

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Because of its focus on getting everyone’s trees spliced together into one [[Big Tree]], Geni is not an ideal place for users to create and store completely private family trees. The Geni software is purposely designed to discourage any such usage for all but the tiniest of family trees within which there are no other Geni users, nor any shared ancestors of other Geni users. For example, you cannot invite another family member to view the work you’ve done on your tree unless and until you invite them to “join” your [[Family]] Group by claiming the profile (tree entry) that you have created for them in your tree. And once this family member does so, they will then share full edit access to what is now ''their'' [[Family]] Group- even though those profiles may have been originally entered by you. Furthermore, those invited family members now have the ability to invite other family members, which brings even more people into the picture.

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====Your Extended Tree====

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At this point you are probably wondering “if I’m not supposed to enter my entire tree into Geni, then what shall I do with all of the data and research I’ve done on the scores of generations who lived before my 4th grandparents?” The answer goes back to collaboration and sharing. There are a huge number of Geni users who preceded you, and chances are that one or more of them have already entered many of your distant ancestors in the [[Big Tree]]. In fact, some of the more “famous” (or infamous) historical figures have been entered tens or hundreds of times already- so it would be counter-productive to add them again. Instead, as you build your [[Tree]], watch for the appearance of a little picture of a magnifying glass in the upper left corner of certain tree entries. These symbolize potential Tree [[Matches]]. Click on the magnifying glass and you will be shown a list of possible duplicates that already exist in the [[Big Tree]]. If one of the listed profiles seems to have matching parents, spouse, siblings, children, and dates for birth and death to the one that you entered in your own tree, then click on “Compare profiles” to have a closer look. Once you confirm that the two compared profiles do indeed represent the same person, click on “Yes” to request or complete the merge. Once the [[Profile merging]] is completed by you or the manager of the other profile, the two profiles are replaced by a single profile that combines the information from both originals, and your name will be added as one of the co-managers of the combined profile. At this point, you are now officially sharing a profile entry with other Geni users; it is no longer just yours. In case all of the data did not exactly match before the merge, the original data is retained in under a tab named Actions / View Conflicting Data when viewing the full profile. To see the full profile for any entry in the tree, just click on the name of the person shown in the tree entry.

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If you complete a profile merge with one that is already in the [[Big Tree]], then your [[Tree]] is now a part of the [[Big Tree]]. The task from that point forward will be to step through the other existing entries in the [[Big Tree]], adding missing information, and looking for and repairing duplicates and errors as you find them.

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====You’re not alone!====

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Most Geni users, at one time or another, feel quite daunted by the sheer size of the [[Big Tree]] and the seemingly endless number of errors it contains- mostly from incorrect merges or faulty data in the trees of other users. Don’t get discouraged; we’re all in this together! You have several options:

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# You can invite other Geni users to be [[Collaborators]]

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# You can contact one of the Geni [[Curators]]

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# You can contact Geni Customer Support at [http://help.geni.com http://help.geni.com]

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At this point, it is recommended that you read over the appropriate other sections of this Wiki to get more familiar with some of the more advanced Geni features and concepts.

Latest revision as of 19:55, 30 November 2012

The Geni Wiki is a source of user contributed information about Geni and related to Geni's services.

Geni is a website that allows families to collaboratively build their family tree. Family members can then use the tree to learn more about each other, share knowledge about common ancestors and relatives, and stay in touch with each other.

In November 2012, Geni was acquired by MyHeritage Ltd. and is now a MyHeritage company.

About Geni

Geni lore or Geni history

Geni was founded in 2006 by former executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, Ebay and Tribe.

Geni stats or Geni statistics

There are more than 50,000,000 profiles.

There are more than 3,500,000 registered users.

50% of Geni users are outside the U.S.

Geni junkies or Geni members

(Who are all these people and how did they get here?)

Geni tech or Geni technology

(Oh, the standard stuff like what technologies are being used, if Geni is housing their own servers in an ultra-modern, kick-butt facility.)

Building your Geni tree

Getting Started

Welcome to Geni!

If you are like most new users of Geni, you have probably been looking for a place to enter, store and share genealogical data on your immediate family (and beyond) with other relatives and friends. Geni is indeed a great tool for doing that. But there are several things that you will need to know before you get too far at building your family tree here. The most important of these is the fact that Geni’s focus is on Collaboration and sharing for the purpose of working toward the ultimate goal of creating a single, accurate family tree that connects all of our users (with no duplicates). In other words, the whole point is to build your family tree out just far enough to find the places where it overlaps with the trees of other users, and then to merge these points of overlap in order to eliminate the duplicates. The more entries you make beyond that will just create extra work for you and other users, as will be explained below.

What Geni is not

Because of its focus on getting everyone’s trees spliced together into one Big Tree, Geni is not an ideal place for users to create and store completely private family trees. The Geni software is purposely designed to discourage any such usage for all but the tiniest of family trees within which there are no other Geni users, nor any shared ancestors of other Geni users. For example, you cannot invite another family member to view the work you’ve done on your tree unless and until you invite them to “join” your Family Group by claiming the profile (tree entry) that you have created for them in your tree. And once this family member does so, they will then share full edit access to what is now theirFamily Group- even though those profiles may have been originally entered by you. Furthermore, those invited family members now have the ability to invite other family members, which brings even more people into the picture.

Your Extended Tree

At this point you are probably wondering “if I’m not supposed to enter my entire tree into Geni, then what shall I do with all of the data and research I’ve done on the scores of generations who lived before my 4th grandparents?” The answer goes back to collaboration and sharing. There are a huge number of Geni users who preceded you, and chances are that one or more of them have already entered many of your distant ancestors in the Big Tree. In fact, some of the more “famous” (or infamous) historical figures have been entered tens or hundreds of times already- so it would be counter-productive to add them again. Instead, as you build your Tree, watch for the appearance of a little picture of a magnifying glass in the upper left corner of certain tree entries. These symbolize potential Tree Matches. Click on the magnifying glass and you will be shown a list of possible duplicates that already exist in the Big Tree. If one of the listed profiles seems to have matching parents, spouse, siblings, children, and dates for birth and death to the one that you entered in your own tree, then click on “Compare profiles” to have a closer look. Once you confirm that the two compared profiles do indeed represent the same person, click on “Yes” to request or complete the merge. Once the Profile merging is completed by you or the manager of the other profile, the two profiles are replaced by a single profile that combines the information from both originals, and your name will be added as one of the co-managers of the combined profile. At this point, you are now officially sharing a profile entry with other Geni users; it is no longer just yours. In case all of the data did not exactly match before the merge, the original data is retained in under a tab named Actions / View Conflicting Data when viewing the full profile. To see the full profile for any entry in the tree, just click on the name of the person shown in the tree entry.

If you complete a profile merge with one that is already in the Big Tree, then your Tree is now a part of the Big Tree. The task from that point forward will be to step through the other existing entries in the Big Tree, adding missing information, and looking for and repairing duplicates and errors as you find them.

You’re not alone!

Most Geni users, at one time or another, feel quite daunted by the sheer size of the Big Tree and the seemingly endless number of errors it contains- mostly from incorrect merges or faulty data in the trees of other users. Don’t get discouraged; we’re all in this together! You have several options: